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Senin, 13 Mei 2013

The Pineapple Story (how to conquer anger)

My family and I work with these people way back in the bush.
One day I decided that I was going to bring in some pineapples. The people had heard of pineapples. They had tasted them,
but they didn't have any source to get them. So I got them from another mission
station.

I got about one hundred plants. Then I got one of the local
men to work for me. He planted all these pineapple shoots for me. I paid him, of course. I paid him salt or whatever he wanted
for the days he worked. It seemed to take awfully long for those little shoots of
pineapple to become big bushes and finally yield pineapples. It took about three
years.

Back in the jungle you long for fresh fruit. You don't get
much fresh fruit or vegetables. So finally that third year we could see fresh
pineapples coming on, and we were just waiting for Christmas time because that
is when they are ripe. When Christmas finally came, my wife and I would go for
walks to see if any were ripe enough to eat. Finally, when they got ripe, we
didn't get a single one of them. The natives stole every one.

They stole them before they were ripe. That is their art.
Steal it before it is ripe or the owner gets it.

Here I am, a missionary, getting mad at these people.
Missionaires aren't supposed to get mad. You all know that. But I got angry. I said,"Look, you guys! I have been waiting for these
pineapples for three years. I didn't get any of them. Now there are others
getting ripe. If any more of these pineapples are stolen, no more clinic for
you. My wife was running a clinic. She was giving them all their
pills free. They didn't have anything to pay. We were knocking ourselves out
trying to help these people, taking care of their sick, saving the lives of
their babies.

One by one the pineapples got ripe, and one by one they were
stolen. So I felt I had to stand my ground with these people. I couldn't just
let them run all over me. But that was not really the reason. It was a selfish
reason. I wanted to eat those pineapples. So no more clinic. Then they let their sick babies die. They couldn't care
less. Life was cheap over there. People with bad pneumonia would be coughing
and begging us for medicine. We would say,"No! Remember you stole our
pineapples."

"I didn't steal them," they would say."It was
the other guys that did it." They would go on coughing and begging. We
couldn't take it any longer. I broke down and said," Okay, tomorrow
morning we will open the clinic again." When we opened the clinic they started stealing the
pineapples, and I felt bad again. Man! These rascals!! But finally we found out who was doing it. The guy who had
planted them. I called him on the carpet and said,"Look, buddy! What are
you doing stealing my pineappples? You are my gardener."

He said,"My hands plant them. My mouth eats them."
That is the rule of the jungle. If they plant something, that is theirs. They
had never heard of the idea of paying for services. So he said,"They are
all mine."

I said,"Oh no! they are mine. I paid you to plant
them." But he just couldn't understand how that made them my plants. I
thought,"Well, what do I do now? It was the rule of their tribe. I'd
better learn to live by their rule."

So I said," All right, I will give you half of these
plants. Everything from here to over there is yours. If they get ripe, they are
yours. And these are mine." He sounded like he was in agreement. But my
pineapples still got stolen. Then I thought,"Maybe, I should let them have
all those pineapples, and I'll get some new ones." But I knew that I would
have to wait three more years. That was hard for me to do.

Finally I said,"Look, I will give you all these
pinapples, and then I will start all over again. "Now you make a garden
and you take all these pineapples out of my garden so I will have room to plant
new ones. I don't want your pinapples in my garden if you fell they are
yours."

So they said,"Too wan (which means outsider, foreigner)
you will have to pay us." I said,"Now, look!" They
said,"No,no! you are asking us to move your pineapple bushes and that is
work."

Now they are mine. I said,"All right, I'll pay you one
day's work. Take them all away." Then they said,"We don't have a
garden ready. Will you pay us to get it ready?" I said,"Forget
it!" I was so fed up with them.

I told my wife,"This is impossible! I am just going to
pay some guy to root them all out and throw them on the trash heap. Then if
they want them, they can just take them." So we did. We rooted them all
out and threw them on a heap. That was hard to do. They were nice pineapple
bushes.

Then I bought new plants. I said,"Now look, all you
guys. I am going to pay you to plant them, but I eat them, me and my family.
You don't eat any." They said,"You can't do that. If we plant them,
we eat them. I said,"Look, I don't have time to mess with a garden. I have
too much to do. There are so many of you, and there is only one me. You have
got to help me. I want you to plant them, and I will eat them."

I said," I will pay you, what do you want? I will give
you this nice knife if you will agree to do it." They started to
think," He will pay us that knife so he can eat our pineapples."
Finally they agreed.

During the next three years I reminded they guy who planted
them, "Look! Who is going to eat these pineapples?" He said,"You
are." I said,"Fine! Have you still got the knife?" He
said,"Yes." I said,"Well, take good care of it." If he lost
the knife I am in trouble again. The pay is gone.

Finally, after three more years the pineapples began to
ripen. My wife and I walked through the garden again. I said,"Man! Pretty
soon we are going to have a crop of our own pineapples." We started to
thank God that He was providing them for us. But do you know what happened?
Every one of them was stolen! I would see the natives go through the garden in
the daytime to spot where the pinapples were, and then at night they would be
able to go right to them.

I thought,"What am I going to do? We can't cut out the
clinic. Let's cut out the trade store." That's where they get their
matches, salt, fish hooks, and things like that. They used to do without them.
That won't kill them. I said,"Okay, no more store. You stole my pineapples."

When we closed the store they began to say,"We had
better leave because we don't have any salt. If he is not going to have a
store, there is no advantage for us being here with him. We might as well go
back to our jungle houses." So they took off to live in the jungle. There,
I was sitting by myself eating pineapples. No people, no ministry.

I said to my wife,"Look, we can eat pinapples back in
the States, I mean, if that is all we are here to do." A runner returned
and I said,"Get them all back. We will open the store next Monday." I
thought and thought. How am I going to get to eat those pineapples? There must
be a way. Then I got an idea. A German shepherd! I got the biggest German
shepherd I could get on the island. I brought him in there and let him loose. They were afraid of him. They had never seen a dog that big.
They had little, mangy dogs. They never fed them. They were all diseased. And
there was this well-fed German shepherd dog. They looked at the food he got. I
would always have to feed him when the people weren't around because they would
resent the dog's food. It was better than anything they got. But that dog did
the trick. Most of the people didn't dare come around anymore. So now we had
the same result as closing the store.

People didn't come. I didn't have anybody to talk to. I
couldn't get anybody to teach me the language. I thought," What do we
do?" The dog wasn't working. But in the meantime, the dog was starting to
breed with the village dogs and would raise up a wicked half shepherd, wild and
hungry. The doctor said,"Look! If your kids or anybody gets bitten by that
dog, I am not going to treat them." He was using the same tactics on me
that I was using on the natives. I said to my wife,"We've got to get rid
of the dog." Well, I got rid of the dog. I hated to do it.

Now the dog was gone. The people came back and no more
pineapples. I thought,"Boy! There must be a way. What can I do?" Then
I came home on furlough and went to a Basic Youth Seminar. I learned that we
must give everything we own to God. The Bibles says if you give, you will have;
If you keep for yourself, you will lose. Give your things to God, and God will
see that you have enough. This is a basic principle.

I thought,"Man! I don't have anything to lose. I will
give that pinapple garden to God because I am not eating the pineapples
anyway." Now I know that is not a very good sacrifice. You are supposed to
sacrifice something that is valuable to you. But I would give it to God and see
if He could control it. I said,"Man! I am going to see how He is going to
do it."

So I stood out in the garden one night. The people had gone
home. I didn't want them to see me out there praying. I prayed,"Lord, see
these pineapple bushes? I have fought to have fruit from them. I have claimed
them. I have stood up for my rights. "It is all wrong, and I realize it
now. I have seen that it is wrong and I give them to You. "From now on, if
You want me to eat any of Your pineapples, fine. You just go right ahead and
give them to us. If not, fine. It doesn't really matter." So I gave them
to God, and the natives stole the pinapples as usual. I thought to
myself,"See, God, You can't control them either."

Then one day they came to me and said,"Too wan, you
have become a Christian, haven't you?" I was ready to react and
say,"Look here, I have been a Christian for twenty years." But
instead I said,"Why do you say that?" They said," Because you
don't get angry anymore when we steal your pineapples." This was a real
revelation. Now I was living what I had been preaching to them. I had been
telling them to love one another, be kind to one another, and I had always been
standing up for my rights, and they knew it.

Finally, one bright lad started thinking and said,"Now,
why don't you get angry anymore?" I said," I have given that garden
away. It isn't my garden anymore. So you are not stealing my pinapples. I don't
have to get angry anymore." Another guy started to think even more and he
said,"Who did you give that garden to?" They looked around."Did
he give it to you?" Di he give it to you?" Whose is it anyway?"

"Whose pinapples are we stealing?" Then I
said,"I have given the garden to God." They said," To God!
Hasn't He got any pineapples where He is?" I said," I don't know
whether He has or not, but I have given it to God." They went to the village and said," Do you know whose
pinapples we are stealing? Too wan has given them to God." They all
started thinking about that one. They came back in a group and said."Too
wan, you should no have done it. Why don't you get them back from God? "No
wonder we aren't getting the pigs when we go out hunting. "No wonder our
babies are gitting sick. "No wonder our wives are not giving birth. No
wonder our the fish aren't biting." Then they said."We shouldn't
steal them anymore if they are God's, should we?"

They were afraid of God. So then the pinapples began to
ripen. The natives came and said,"Too wan, you pineapples are ripe."
I said,"They are not mine. They belong to God." They said,"But
they are going to get rotten. You had better pick them." and so, I got
some and I let the natives take some. When my family sat down to eat them, I
said,"Lord, we are eating Your pineapples. Thank you for giving them to
us."

All those years those natives were watching me and listening
to my words. They saw the two didn't match. But when I began to change, they
did too. Soon many natives decided to become Christians. The principle of
giving to God was reallyworking. I
could hardly believe it myself. I started giving other things to God.

One day my son was near death and there was no way to get
him to a doctor. I suddenly realized that I'd never given my son to God! So I
prayed,"God, I give my son to You. Whatever You want to do is fine."
That was harder than giving God the pineapple garden! I was prepared for God to
take my son. But that night the fever broke, and my son got well.

The natives began bringing things for me to fix. I
said," God, my time is Yours. If You want me to fix harmonicas and pots
and shovels out here on the mission field, fine!" I wasn't getting as much
Bible translation done, but more and more people were being won to Christ. They
kept saying,"Too wan has become a Christian. He tells us to love one
another and now he is starting to love us."

One day I was fixing a broken chair. A native saw me and
said,"Here, let me help you hold it." After we fixed it I said,"
Well, aren't you going to ask me for any salt?" He said,"No, Too wan.
Don't you remember? You helped me fix my shovel. Now I help you fix your
chair." I thought,"Man! That is the first time they did anything for
me without getting paid for it."

Then one day I saw something in the Bible. I had never
noticed it before.

"And when you enter the land and plant any kind of
fruit tree, regard its fruit as forbidden. For three years you are to consider
it forbidden. It must not be eaten. In the fourth year all its fruit will be
holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. But in the fifth year you may eat its
fruit. In this way your harvest will be increased. I am the Lord your God.(Leviticus 20:11)

Finally I understood!

God never intended me to eat those pinapples the first year
they were ripe! He wanted me to dedicate them to Him. Then He wanted me to give
them to the natives so that they could see my good works and glorify my Father
who was in heaven. If I had only done this, the natives would have urged me to
eat the pineapples the fifth year.

Man! All the trouble I could have avoided!

What is your "Pineapple Garden"? How to give your "Pineapple Garden" to God?

1. Recall what makes you angry

2. List your rights which others are violating

3. Transfer your rights to God

4. Purpose to thank God, whatever happens

5. Use future anger as God's alarm system

Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.

(The pineapple story took place in Dutch New Guinea.)

It covered a period of seven years. It is a humorous yet profound illustration of applying a basic Scriptural

Principle. As you read this first hand account, you will discover that it is a classic example of the kinds of

struggles which each of us faces until we learn and apply the principle of yielding personal rights.